Madeline Brewer Quotes

With my dad coming from a theatre tradition, there was a lot of preparation before auditions. Not just in terms of saying the lines correctly but a process of entering into what it was all about.

When you work as an actor, you've got to feel safe even in what appears to be the simplest things.

Improv definitely made me a better auditioner, without a doubt. We did do an audition semester in grad school, and that was helpful for those times that you have a script and you have a few days to prepare it, to really work on sides. But the auditions I was doing in New York, if you got it the night before, you were very lucky.

As an actor, you get hired to repeat yourself. It wears you out.

Personally, I need to learn every word on the page before I go in and audition. I have not mastered the skill of holding pages in my hand and acting with pages in my hand. I find that every time I have to look at the page it takes me completely out of the scene.

You can be in an acting class all you want, but you don't fully learn until you get off that stage and in front of a camera.

I didn't know I could sing until I auditioned for 'Les Miserables.' My friend was auditioning, and I wanted to audition too.

I could not separate myself off stage from myself on stage, as so many actors can.

I think one of the mistakes actors make is we're so focused on what we're going to say.

As an actor, being on autopilot is the worst thing possible.

I took theatre and stuff in college, then I took a bunch of different acting classes here in L.A. Sometimes when I have a hard audition, I'll call my acting coach and he'll come help me. I actually get more nervous in acting class than I do at an actual audition. It's actually a really great way to get over your nerves.

I think when you're acting, you usually don't have to know too much beyond how to pronounce the words you're saying.

'Girls' was my first audition. I'd just taken an audition class, and I was excited to implement those tools.

As an actor, I have these tics that I don't even know exist.

I wanted to be an actor, like, so, so bad. I took acting classes, I auditioned for Disney, and then I realized how nervous I got with remembering lines.

Confidence is the greatest gift for an actor.

My first professional acting job was on 'Boss'. My first acting job was basically my first acting class. I had to show up on set prepared and knowing my lines. Also, I got a chance to work with a living legend, Kelsey Grammar - that gave me hands on experience.

Talent is out there. But sometimes it doesn't work. You're going to find people who you think are wonderful, and the minute you turn on the camera, they just don't understand the concept of acting.

I don't think I had a script on 'King Kong.' But usually you read a script and then you go and audition for it. It's rare when there's no script. I sort of like the latter better, because I'm more successful at it.

But then I got a job selling coffee at the York Theatre, and when I met theatre people, something clicked. I felt comfortable with them; I felt like myself. I decided to go to drama school based just on that feeling. I had never done any acting.

I think the reason why I'm an actress is because I got hooked on the feeling of studying for an audition, going to the audition, and then getting that phone call.

I didn't have to audition. That's common, but it had never happened to me before. Normally, I hate auditioning. I need to stew and think... let the character develop and grow inside me.

One of the first auditions I had in New York was for a commercial where I had to go in and audition to be a snake charmer... It was either some bank commercial or something where they wanted a guy charming a snake... I remember they wanted to know if I actually knew how to snake charm.

As an actor, you're lucky if you get a month before a project starts. There are times when you get a day before a project starts. So to be able to really sit and inhabit that mind and the story is really beneficial, and it really helps for me to be able to then compartmentalize as we're shooting and detach and go somewhere else.

I have this assemblage of small facts, which looks like intelligence but no real depth of knowledge about anything. That's why I'm an actor.